The academics behind a landmark study of ability grouping have published best practice advice about teaching pupils in mixed-ability groups.

The list of five dos and four don’ts comes from the UCL Institute of Education.

The group’s research into setting raised concerns about children being misallocated to sets - particularly black pupils and girls in maths - and the expertise of teachers assigned to lower sets and the confidence of pupils in these groups.

Here is the “dos and don’ts of mixed attainment grouping” advice in full:

Do practice differentiation

Students will start your lesson with different levels of prior knowledge and understanding. We recommend differentiation through questioning, feedback and outcome. Pre-teaching may also be helpful.

Do change in-class groupings regularly

Fixed table groups based on “ability” share many of the same negative impacts on low prior attainers as setting and streaming.

Do have high expectations of all students in the class

A key benefit of mixed attainment grouping is that teachers can communicate the same high expectations to all students and offer the same tasks, regardless of prior attainment.

Do plan rich tasks that students can access at different levels and receive feedback

Students will benefit from feedback on their work, so choose tasks that all students can access (potentially at different levels), and which provide opportunities for feedback from peers as well as the teacher.

Do encourage a classroom climate where students support one another

All students benefit from articulating their ideas and listening to the ideas of others.

Don’t teach to the middle

It can be much more effective to teach to the top and ask yourself what you need to do to make the planned learning objectives accessible for all your students.

Don’t establish fixed within-class ‘ability’ groups

Fixed groups can mean that students develop ideas about their “ability” and “potential” being fixed. Flexibility avoids this, and ensures that groups are changed according to pedagogic demands of the particular lesson, as well as providing diversity in students’ learning from one another.

Don’t plan three lessons for every class

Mixed attainment grouping should not mean an unrealistic workload for teachers. Rather than differentiation by task or resource, try differentiation by questioning, feedback and outcome.

Don’t over-rely on high attainers explaining to others

Explaining learning to others can be very effective, but be careful not to depend too often on using high attaining students as explainers, as this can be frustrating for high attainers and patronising to students at other attainment levels.

Professor Francis and her colleague Jeremy Hodgen will outline the findings of the best practice in grouping students project at the ResearchED conference in London tomorrow.

This is an edited article from the 7 September edition of Tes. Subscribers can read the full article here. To subscribe, click here. This week’s Tes magazine is available in all good newsagents. To download the digital edition, Android users can click here and iOS users can click here.